Aston Villa suffered a third defeat in a row against Manchester United on Thursday night, losing 3-0. With Watford picking up midweek points, they are now four points from safety and teetering on relegation.
Stuck in 19th place, Dean Smith has to get his misfiring Villains to step up and get a rare win. Sunday sees Aston Villa host Crystal Palace at Villa Park in a game that could end in a win for the home side.
Crystal Palace are in a funk having lost four straight games in the league. Although they are safe from relegation, Roy Hodgson’s team have opened the floodgates allowing teams to score goals. Crystal Palace have allowed a combined 11 goals over the course of their last four league matches.
Aston Villa should be buoyed by the Eagles’ poor goals conceded record. While Crystal Palace have allowed goals, they haven’t scored them with the same umph. Just two goals were tallied in their last four matches with three fixtures ending in losses to nil.
The Villains can save their season with games against Crystal Palace, Everton, Arsenal, and West Ham to finish the campaign. Three of those games – excluding Arsenal – are fixtures in which points could be obtained.
Crystal Palace won at Selhurst Park when these sides met earlier this season, 1-0. After a scoreless first half, Crystal Palace’s Jordan Ayew scored the winner in the final 16 minutes.
Aston Villa have struggled all season with conceding second-half goals. Last Sunday at Anfield, the Villains played well in the first half and should have taken a lead into halftime. They fell apart in the second period allowing the Reds to score twice and win 2-0.
Smith has watched his players crumple at Villa Park over the course of their last five games. All five home matches ended without a win and just one point from 15 was taken.
Crystal Palace have lost back to back away matches conceding seven goals in 180 minutes of football. The good news heading to Villa Park is that Aston Villa are awful in the final third.
Aston Villa have scored just 19 home goals and Sunday’s game should be a low-scoring affair. Crystal Palace do not score many goals either averaging just 0.88 a game.
In spite of scoring a low number of goals, Crystal Palace are playing a bad Aston Villa team and should come away from Villa Park with a win. Expect a low-scoring fixture with under 2.5 goals scored and the Eagles claiming a win to nil.